Pot case points to youth problems in Campbell

In late July, two 5-year-olds vandalized a neighbor’s house.

By Jeanne Starmack

CAMPBELL — The marijuana plant, still in its plastic pot, was on the small side but a nice, healthy hue of green.

Still, it is not long for this world — Detective Sgt. Dave Taybus set it on a desk at the Campbell police station and detailed its coming demise.

“I’ll pull it up and put it in a bag and let it die,” he said as he contemplated the little plant — brought to the police courtesy of a growing juvenile-delinquency problem in the city.

As of Wednesday, at least, it still lived — in the evidence room at the station after being taken from a 15-year-old boy who was spotted around 10:30 a.m. Tuesday carrying it at Blossom and Eastern avenues. It was a city police detective who saw him and called the dispatch.

The boy is now charged with possession of drugs. Police booked him at the city jail and released him to his mother.

Police have dealt with him before. He was charged July 21 with breaking and entering after witnesses said they saw him and two other teens try to kick in a garage door near his home.

He is the brother of two other boys, 9 and 13, who were charged in a burglary at a Blossom Avenue home July 18. Two 17-year-olds were charged in that burglary as well. An off-duty police officer caught the group carrying stolen property in the street in a wagon, bag and bedsheet, police reports indicate.

Shortly after those two episodes, Taybus told The Vindicator that Campbell police are concerned about the juvenile-delinquency problem enough to begin charging parents.

The plan, he said, is to charge parents whose children get into trouble because they aren’t supervised with endangering the welfare of a child. Parents also will be held accountable for curfew violations. Kids under 18 have a 10 p.m. curfew, even on weekends.

The thought of a 9-year-old’s walking in the street while carrying stolen property in a bedsheet may be surprising. But that boy wasn’t the youngest to end up in the pages of Campbell police reports last month.

Two 5-year-olds went to the home of a neighbor on Buell Avenue on July 28. No one was home at the time, and the boys vandalized the house and yard, police report.

The report said the boys cut a screen door, spit on the door and several windows, put rocks into the outside air conditioner unit and broke the cover off the unit’s electrical box.

They damaged the outside dryer vent, ripped spouting off the side of the house, uprooted plants, pulled a cable wire off the house, threw dirt and rocks on the trampoline and threw landscape rocks throughout the backyard.

The officer returned one of the children to his brother at their home, who told officers he didn’t realize the boy had left the house. The other child was returned to his grandmother, who told police that even though she is watching the boy, she is not responsible for his actions, the police report indicates.

The homeowner told The Vindicator on Wednesday that her main concern was her air conditioner, because it was running when the boys put the rocks in the unit. The unit didn’t break though, she said, and the only cost she had was in replacing her cut screen.

“The rest was cleaning up,” she said.

She said the boys, who were friends with one of her children, are now forbidden to come to her house.

Taybus, the department’s main juvenile officer, said again Wednesday that police are looking into charging adult guardians. The 5-year-olds will not be charged, he said. The 9-year-old was charged with burglary, breaking and entering and possession of criminal tools.